Tuesday 18 October 2016

Lesson 15: Task 4

What do i believe in?

          The early years of children's education are arguably the most important years of their lives. These are the years when the habits and attitudes of students toward school are formed. These years will determine whether or not young students will enjoy school and thrive to succeed in school or find it a oppressive place where they are constantly ridiculed for doing the wrong thing instead of being taught by the teachers what the right thing to do is. In a way, it could be said that a persons success that they will have in their life depends on how they were educated in their early elementary school and middle school years. With all that being said, one of the things that can happen to a young student that could potentially ruin their chances of leading a successful life is suspension and because of this, should not be used as a punishment. In common days, suspension is used when a student commits an act not suitable for a school environment. A student will be sent home for a specific number of days, depending on the severity of the offence.  By doing this, students will not only miss lessons being taught by the teacher, as well as not being given a actual punishment, they will also not be given a reason to reflect on what wrong they have done in order to correct it in future times. 

          One of the more obvious negatives that a suspension provides is the time that a student misses in class. This has many negative repercussions for the student in the immediate future and in the long run. When a student misses multiple classes, they are not only miss valuable lessons being taught by the teacher, but also they are being isolated from the other students in class who have already learned the lessons that the suspended student has not. When there is a divide in any way between students, it opens up room for bullying, creating more isolation. At the end of all this, you will have a student who has missed lessons in class which will result to bad grades and a student who feels inferior to other students which leads to anxiety and many other mental disorders. When this happens, then instead of seeing school as a place to learn new things, the student will see school as a dark place where they are not on the same level as other students and would rather spend their time elsewhere rather then this place of learning.

          When suspensions are carried out, most of the time students are punished by being sent home for a specified number of days. To many students though, time at home alone as most parents are out at work during the school time, is something that they would welcome with open arms. Time off from school is not a punishment for students, especially for the students who have already experienced the isolation from other students that results from suspension. Since they will not see suspension as a punishment, they will have no incentive to avoid suspension. This will create a never ending circle of negativity as students would rather spend time away from school because of their negative relationship with school which was created by being suspended in the first place. When they see suspension, they do not see it as a punishment but rather, they see it as a escape from somewhere they would rather not be. Instead of disciplining the student, they are inadvertently encouraging their behavior.

          When a school wishes to discipline a student, they are hoping that a few things will happen as a result of the punishment that they will apply. They hope that the student will see the punishment as a lesson not to do whatever act they committed and as well they wish that they will reflect on what they have done and seen what they could have done better. With a suspension though, the student does not see it as a punishment as was mentioned earlier but rather they feel more encouraged to commit the acts they have done. Young students would already have a problem in reflecting on their past as the young student usually has a short attention span and unless taught otherwise, would not reflect on their past. A punishment which rewards the student will not teach a student the correct way to act but rather encourage the student to continue acting the way they have.

          Successful peoples lives are always defined by their upbringing. There is reward for positive behavior and punishment for negative behavior. These rewards and punishments are meant to be used as an incentive to either continue acting the way they are or as a way to display to the child their wrong doing. With suspensions, the wrong act that a student commits is not punished correctly as many students see it as a good thing. Also, there are many academic and behavioral problems that can be made by suspension while not encouraging the student to reflect on what they have done.

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